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6 economist sunsuntribune saturday july 9 2005 tstouffville suntnhune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave 3rd floor stoufmile on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief deborakelly business manager robert lazurko director production interactive media john futhey advertising director retail fiver sales nicole fletcher advertising director classified real estate events management gofd paolucci distribution director circulation barry black director circulation systems lynnpashko marketingpartnerships director debra weller york region printing general manager bob dean letters to the editor bong found in messy park is breaking point i frequently take my son to personna park which for the most part is spectac ular the grounds are beautifully main tained and the playground equipment is immaculate however the way the grounds are treated by the people using the park is horrific the playground area is littered with cigarette butts perfect for babies to chew on despite the fact bins are provided throughout the park although i find this extremely annoying my breaking point was reached when i saw my one-year- old son walking through the park carrying what seemed to be a water bottle it turned out to be a home made bong a device used to smoke drugs who knows what was smoked through this bong pot crack cocaine whats next needles distributed throughout the park putting our chil dren at risk of contracting a variety of unmentionable diseases i know this is common in a lot of parks throughout the toronto area but personna park i notice a lot of adults spend time relaxing and having lunch at the park they drive there and i cant help but wonder whos responsible for this mess if you are using our park please treat it with the respect it deserves and have consideration for the residents and chil dren of the cachet area mjazyx markham box grove wiii lose out re fore road threatens courses july 7 i live in box grove and can say from experience the final decision will be one that only panders to the developers building the subdivisions in the new box grove i was on the box grove ratepayers group for two years and resigned after realizing developers have a huge influ ence on council decisions and that the process is so ridiculously wasteful and politically controlled it is borderline unethical our councillors have repeatedly shown their disregard for the locals here in box grove and sided with the devel opers on almost every issue what they should do is stop pretend ing they care about the environment and just blow a super highway through box grove and be done widi it i will bet my last dollar the golf course and residents of box grove will lose out and the subdivisions and roads will plow right through to make way for progress shameful but expected david rout markham not in white house the united states is not exactly known for haying a progressive official policy on climate change president george w bush goes out of his way to avoid talking about the issue and prefers to discuss climate variability thereby removing the human hand from the problem and downplaying the urgency of the situation in fact the us government has been accused of softening even altering sci- entitle statements about global warming the us was also instrumental in watering down a proposed jointstatement on climate change from the g8 leaders summit this week in scodand a draft statement showed no targets or timelines and is essentially meaningless but while the official us position may involve sticking its head in the sand many us states and cities are stepping up to the plate taking the problem seriously and recog nizing the benefits of reducing the emissions that are disrupting the climate andsome of the emerging leaders are also some of the least expected california governor arnold schwarzenegger is one the former actor and current leader of the worlds fifthlargest economy has announced plans to reduce his david suzuki states heattrapping emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050 not bad for a republican some might be tempted to say but changing the way we produce and use energy is not a partisan issue mr schwarzenegger deserves full credit for setting such an ambitious yet achievable target that may have raised more than a few eyebrows in his own party regardless of ones political affiliations shifting to more sustainable forms of energy production and using energy more wisely makes sense doing so will save money partly because energy in any form is expensive but it will also save money in the long term because it will reduce other burdens to soci ety like climate change and air pollutionbur- dens that have real economic costs in terms of health care infrastructure and agriculture they also hurt our quality of life mr schwarzenegger isnt the only us leader to recognize the advantages of chang- ing our energy economy seattle mayor greg nichols a democrat has organized some 300 other american mayors including many republicans to agree to meet or beat the tar gets set out in the kyoto protocol thats the veiy same kyoto protocol the us officially dropped out of years ago saying that reduc ing heattrapping emissions would damage the american economy meanwhile mayors such as mr nichols are embracing the transition away from fossil fuels as an economic opportunity for their cities mr nichols recently told grist maga zine the change is inevitable so we should embrace it and encourage entrepreneurs to figure out how to make it profitable and cre ate green jobs its too bad that kind of leadership hasnt trickled up to theg8 meetings together g8 countries including canada are responsible for nearly half the worlds carbon dioxide emissions the main heattrapping gas they are also the most technologically and scientifically advanced accounting for 70 per cent of the worlds scientific citations british prime minister tony blair has been a vocal proponent of a stronger climate commitment from the leaders but president bush has con sistently shut down any meaningful action a month before the g8 meetings the sci entific academies of each of the g8 countries including the us released a joint statement calling on the leaders of these countries to take action on climate change they pointed out failing to act quickly will make a problem that we will inevitably have to deal with much worse thats something many world leaders us governors and hundreds of us mayors clear ly understand already change is happeningwhether the white house likes it or not its only a matter of time before die bush administrationwill have to pull its head out of the sand and face reality with the us responsible for a quarter of the worlds heattrapping gases we must hope that will happen soon take the nature challenge at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters submissions must be less than 400 words and include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribune reserves the right to publish or not 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